This book is a milestone in the presentation of developments in techniques used to design thermal systems. On these pages is an overview of current practice in this rapidly developing field.

With roots tracing to the use of Second Law ideas for design applications decades ago, the design of thermal systems has advanced quickly in the last 20 years. The many computational tools now available make it possible to evaluate virtually all aspects of the performance of systems, from overall behavior to the details of each of the component processes. Every aspect of these types of analysis has seen significant accomplishments.

What has not been done previously is to summarize the cutting-edge trends in this field – the aim of this book. Drawing on the work of people from around the world, the book gives a good cross section of progress made to date.

Designers of thermal systems are practitioners from a variety of disciplines. Although the major contributors and users have been chemical and mechanical engineers, many others find the approaches that have been developed to be of great value. It is not unusual to find a symposium taking place on a regular basis somewhere in the world on issues related to this field.

The book starts with an outline of the major industrial thrusts that have shaped design interests in thermal systems. Summaries are then given of design trends in both the power industry (Chapter 2) and the chemical process industry (Chapter 3).